Roommates + Landlords

Peephole crimes and misdemeanors

Teri Rogers Headshot - Floral
By Teri Karush Rogers  |
June 17, 2010 - 7:33AM
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We are officially wusses.  

When a neighbor annoys us, we tend to react with a cold shoulder if some other accommodation can't be reached.

It never occurred to us to place a voodoo curse instead, or mess with their peephole, or, um, defecate on their door—three of the many harassment complaints that the folks at the non-profit Safe Horizon Mediation Program are apparently accustomed to hearing.

According to Safe Horizon’s community outreach coordinator, Melissa Appleton, NYC vertical dwellers who come to mediate their differences away complain of harassing behaviors that include:

  1. Keeping track of a neighbor’s comings and goings
  2. Filing false reports of child abuse to the NYC Administration for Children Services, which has to investigate all claims
  3. Stalking
  4. Inflicting door damage including messing with the peephole, defecating on the door, and leaving other nasty objets on or in front of the door
  5. Cursing and yelling
  6. Verbal threats
  7. Voodoo curses
  8. Threatening to report a neighbor to the landlord or super
  9. Constantly reporting a neighbor to the police
  10. Making noise on purpose including banging, dropping things, walking in high heels, and having loud sex.

So how, exactly, does one get over an episode of doorway defecation?

"Usually, the person bringing the complaint will say that the incident itself is not the central issue," says Appleton. "Instead, it may be the result of one neighbor being upset by noise complaints, for instance. So the conversation would focus on how the neighbors can live respectfully in peace and quiet."

Another possibility, she says, is that it's all a big misunderstanding.

"This may be the very first time that the neighbor being accused has an opportunity to respond and explain that the complainant is mistaken--that someone else is doing it, and they really have been insulted and hurt by such accusations."

Related posts:

Top 10 reasons to be nicer to your neighbor

Can you sue a neighbor for harassment?

The 8 worst neighbors

 

Teri Rogers Headshot - Floral

Teri Karush Rogers

Founder & Publisher

Founder and publisher Teri Karush Rogers launched Brick Underground in 2009. As a freelance journalist, she had previously covered New York City real estate for The New York Times. Teri has been featured as an expert on New York City residential real estate by The New York Times, New York Daily News, amNew York, NBC Nightly News, The Real Deal, Business Insider, the Huffington Post, and NY1 News, among others. Teri earned a BA in journalism and a law degree from New York University.

Brick Underground articles occasionally include the expertise of, or information about, advertising partners when relevant to the story. We will never promote an advertiser's product without making the relationship clear to our readers.

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